Instant Pot Chicken Broccoli Rice Bowl

I love this easy weeknight dinner recipe for many reasons. One is that the chicken is thrown into the Instant Pot frozen. I always have a bag of frozen chicken thighs or breasts in my freezer and I don’t often remember to thaw. I prefer making instant pot and crockpot recipes that start with frozen chicken.

I also love this recipe because you can mix and match the starch and the vegetables. For example, I served the chicken and broccoli over brown rice but you can serve it over white rice or quinoa instead. I used a package of frozen broccoli but I was thinking how delicious a bag of stir fry vegetables would taste with this. We love buying the big bag of stir fry vegetables from Costco. My kids always fight over the water chestnuts. Weird, I know. You could also try plain peas or cauliflower or whatever you like as well.

This Instant Pot chicken broccoli rice bowl really reminded me of something you’d order at a Teriyaki Stix or a similar type of restaurant. Super fast and easy to get going, this recipe is perfect for a weeknight dinner.

Instructions

Secure the lid. Make sure valve is on “sealing.” Set the timer on the manual function to 18 minutes (for chicken thighs) and 15 minutes (for chicken breasts). When the timer beeps let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes and then remove the rest of the pressure by moving the valve to “venting.”

Open the Instant Pot and remove the chicken to a cutting board. Shred or cut the chicken into pieces.

In a small bowl stir together the cornstarch and water. Stir the cornstarch slurry into the Instant Pot. Turn the Instant Pot to “saute” and let the sauce thicken. As the sauce is thickening stir in the frozen vegetables. When sauce is thickened and vegetables are warmed through stir the chicken back into the Instant Pot.

Serve chicken, sauce and vegetables over hot cooked rice.

Notes

You can mix and match the starch and the vegetables. For example, I served the chicken and broccoli over brown rice but you can serve it over white rice or quinoa instead. I used a package of frozen broccoli but I was thinking how delicious a bag of stir fry vegetables would taste with this. You could also try plain peas or cauliflower or whatever you like as well.

Method:Instant Pot

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This was really good! My chicken was not frozen and I did cut it up in chunks. I used boneless/skinless chicken breasts. I didn’t have oyster sauce either so I just added a little more soy sauce. Family loved it! Thanks!

Made this tonight and used frozen chicken breast and drozen stir fry veggies and added onion and pineapple with the juice. Super tasty and I only needed to add a little more starch for the sauce since the juice added more liquid. It was my first dinner in my new pot and I am excited to see what else this thing can do! Thank you for sharing the recipe!

The flavor of the sauce is hands down the best of all the different Asian-inspired chicken and broccoli sauces I’ve tried. Definitely keeping this recipe and adding it to the regular rotation!

I will say however, that in my experience, 15 minutes is just right for frozen chicken. Anything more than that, and it comes out dry. Knowing this beforehand, I opted for a 15 minute cook time and it came out absolutely perfect.

Easy and yummy. I never have oyster sauce, so I just used more soy. Also, you can reduce the cook time even further if you cut your chicken into smallish pieces or strips. This easy to do either with thawed chicken or still partially frozen. From there, it cooks through in 4 minutes on manual, and you can quick release the pressure. Any time I get the chance, I cut my chicken into smaller pieces, because that 4 minute cook time is just too awesome.

I’ve been cooking in the IP for about a month now, enjoying some decent recipes and enduring some terrible recipes, and this is hands down the absolute best recipe I’ve tried so far! I substituted soy sauce for oyster sauce and canola oil for sesame oil, but it came out absolutely perfect! Thank you so much!

Okay, I’m sure there is. I haven’t myself experimented with it yet so I can’t say for sure how it’d work. But if I were to try this is what I would do…put a 1 cup rice to 1.25 cup water ratio of brown rice in the bottom of the instant pot. Put the chicken and sauce in a dish that will fit inside your instant pot. Place it on a trivet on top of the rice. Cook on manual high pressure for 22 minutes.

I just cook the rice before hand, and just rinse the insert before starting the recipe. The sauce is hot enough to reheat the rice. I used 1 cup of rinsed brown rice and 1.25 cups water. Cooked on high pressure for 20 mins with a quick release. It came out the way I like it, but you may need to play with the time based on your preferences.

We tried this last night and would adjust two things in this recipe. First, 20 minutes and letting the pot depressurize on its own is much too long. The chicken was overcooked. Second, three tablespoons of cornstarch is also too much and gives the sauce a jello like consistency. More like 3 tsps cornstarch and water would have been plenty. Thanks

I had an issue with this dish I thought I’d share. It’s not the author’s fault since I’m sure she meant to put in the chicken you can buy in the store that are separated before they are frozen and then packaged.

We happened to buy two lbs of chicken breast from the butcher and put it in the deep freeze. So since I had the exact amount that was called for I didn’t worry about defrosting or separating the pieces. I put it in as one big blob.

After following the cooking directions exactly I opened my Instant Pot and the parts of the chicken breast that had been connected were still raw and frozen in some parts. I wasn’t sure what to do, so since some parts were still frozen I put it back in for 18 more minutes (quick release this time). It ended up overcooking the chicken.

The sauce was so wonderful it didn’t really matter though! It coated the chicken and everything tasted phenomenal, exactly like it would if you ordered take out! I did add some white onion!

I can safely say even with the mistakes I made we will be making this dish again! I will just know not to throw in a big blob of chicken next time! I may even try it with beef! Yum! Thank you for the recipe!

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Hi! I'm Karen

I know that dinner time can
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